


Practice makes perfect.

by magdalyna



Series: Cultverse [2]
Category: Bandom
Genre: Creepy, Cults, Dubious Consent, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-04
Updated: 2012-07-04
Packaged: 2017-11-09 03:46:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,536
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/450892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magdalyna/pseuds/magdalyna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Andy has rules for his universe</p>
            </blockquote>





	Practice makes perfect.

**Author's Note:**

> Cultverse queenofhell of LJ created. 
> 
> Creepyness abounds.

Andy isn’t usually too big on rules. He goes with the flow when he has a choice. But with Pete and all that entails, he’s finding that the universe has unwritten laws. 

**1)** If things can go wrong, they will.

Crap happens during tour, during performances. Sound check goes badly; props aren’t where they were supposed to be. Interviewers ask rude, inappropriately invasive questions. This is normal. 

What is not normal is when Pete’s message, their message is turned down. Their message saves people. Scene kids come to Pete with scars, addictions, fucked up lives and they go away with something to live for. It should never be insulted like that. 

The red headed girl in Indiana, who was yelling about statutory rape and other nonsense that they didn’t have time for. 

The boy with tattoos and black hair in Idaho who said Pete was a fucking psycho. 

The blond with scars who started screaming as soon as Pete got her back stage in Texas. 

Andy keeps a list of their conversion failures just likes those, along with what happened to the bodies in his head, so he can go over what went wrong and how to improve. It reminds him of practicing the drums when he was a teenager. 

Practice makes perfect. 

 

**2)** Pete is a genius dumbass.

Pete had always been manic, spastic, inspired; been on another level entirely. 

He had calmed down dramatically when he got Patrick as his Voice. He was less frantic, better able to deal with the world. Andy had always known that Pete could be a little much (too much introspection, letting the black wave of depression slide him under, words that Patrick couldn’t make into song because they were gibberish), but that was why Patrick was so special. Patrick could make Pete stable. 

Andy believed this whole heartedly. He believed because if he didn’t, then all this time spent on Pete’s message, their message, would have been wasted. 

And then Pete didn’t come to Europe, was found in a Best Buy parking lot with a cocktail of pills down his gullet. 

He remembers feeling like something had died. Not someone, not Pete. Their message. He doesn’t speak at all when he hears the news. This shakes him, because all his worst fears are coming _true_. 

He prepares for the worst. It happens. 

He sees red when they all are by themselves again. 

“If you can’t even handle your own shit, then why are you leading us, man?” he yells. 

He barely remembers what else he says, because the rage that has been brewing since he heard the news is bubbling over. How could Pete be so weak like that, to let himself lose sight of everything, to forget that Patrick could help him? He starts thinking that maybe Pete shouldn’t be leading them. He stalks out of the room with a shaken, terrified Joe. If he was calmer, he might feel for the boy, whose idol, whose everything, is crumbling before his eyes.

After a while, though, he and Pete and Joe make their peace, hugs and talks and _‘I’m sorry man’s_ all around. 

This is the first time Andy loses faith in Pete. It turns out it won’t be the last. 

 

**3)** Gabe is dangerous and will fuck everything up.

At first, Andy had no reason to … distrust Gabe. Sure, he had his own message, was an unknown element, was slightly off, just like Pete, talked too freely about having kids in his basement. And he didn’t get the Cobra thing at all. 

But Gabe quickly lost that sheen of harmlessness (as harmless as any of them were), when Elisa turned up dead. Especially when Pete had told him to let it slide. 

Pete and Joe and he discussed it backstage after a show, because they needed out figure out what has to be done. Andy thinks it’s a PR nightmare; that Gabe is out of control. Travis and Bill are pretty close to Gabe these days, and it’s not like he was ever really that close to them in the first place. 

Andy dislikes Pete ‘coming to an understanding’ with Gabe mostly because he sees it as just another weakness of Pete’s. But it had to be done. 

And then Patrick was taken to Gabe’s basement. Andy really didn’t like that, didn’t even know why it had to happen. (Patrick was the Voice. Patrick was Pete's. What the hell?) But there’s no stopping Pete, not when his mind is made up. He is relieved when Patrick shows up again, a little worse for wear but otherwise alright. 

Joe watches his eyes as Patrick is brought back in by Pete. They look briefly at each other in silent understanding of this is out of control. But Andy will keep his own counsel. 

He will not be Fall Out Boy’s Elisa. 

 

**4)** Gerard is not the same as Gabe.

Gerard is not insane the way Gabe and Pete are. He is subtle; his message goes down smooth in a way that is completely new and original. A shepherd leading his wayward flock. Andy approves of unorthodox methods such as his. 

This is not to say that Gerard isn’t the leader of a cult. Andy has seen the Gerard look in too many eyes to believe that Gerard is benign. The difference is that people know ahead of time that Gerard saves lives. Scene kids, news casters, corporate suits, they all know. Well, until Gerard gets to them they only think they know. 

Gerard is just like them like that. 

Pete doesn’t see Gerard the same way as he does Gabe. The understanding, the alliance, is built on sharing a common message rather than avoiding each other like with Gabe. 

Andy only wishes he and seemingly the rest of Warped hadn’t seen Pete and Mikey Way together in the biblical sense. Mikey doesn’t do anything for him like that.

Andy hears through William that Gerard frustrates Gabe. 

William is still Pete’s although Pete is dubious about that. William periodically shows up and hangs out with Andy and Pete and sometimes Joe and rarely Patrick. He talks about business dealings and Gabe and takes delight in telling Pete about Gabe. Probably on Gabe’s orders. Pete is amused to hear that recently, Gabe had a boy in his basement that was a My Chemical Romance fan who wouldn’t accept the Cobra. 

Andy just shakes his head. 

 

**5)** Branching out is good for the message.

Fall Out Boy, after Patrick solidified everything, was always meant to go global. 

You slept, breathed, wore, saw, read, ate it. It became a part of you, changed you. 

This was always Andy’s dream. (Actually, his dream is to build the world up and then systematically destroy it, going back to the basics. Maybe he never got over being 5.)

So there was Clandestine and DeacayDance and Panic! At The Disco and The Hush Sound and The Cab (Andy has no idea what that’s about, since there are multiple Alexes in it. He thinks Pete is slacking. Also, he's worried about The Hushies. They are stubborn and resilient against the message, and that might be a problem.) and a whole host of side projects to keep Pete perpetually busy. Andy is … concerned because if Pete gets too busy then everything will start to spin out of control, and Gabe is always waiting for a chance to get the upper hand in the weird physical chess match Pete and he have going. 

He’s put too much of himself into this to let it fall apart. 

But then they tour in places like Belgium and Japan and Australia and he breathes a little easier, because they aren’t spinning just yet. 

Pete taking up with Ashlee Simpson threw him at first. They were antithetical to each other in every way. He didn’t get it, but often with Pete, you didn’t have to get things, you just had to accept them. 

The only time he brought the subject of Pete’s latest girlfriend, Pete just smiled at him and soothingly started talking about how this was going to help bring Pop music closer to his message, their message, was going to change things for the better, so really Andy, why are you so worried? Andy just blinked at this. They never talked about her in relation to the message again. Secretly, Andy doesn’t think Ashlee is smart enough to realize that there _is_ a message at all. 

All this spreading just makes the message go down easier when the time comes. 

It’s always been about the message. 

 

**6)** Rewind (where you’ve been is just as important as where you’re going).

“Let's remake the world in a new image. Let's show people what they can really be like. Let's be their saviors.” Pete said, eyes manic, flashing wild. His body is completely calm. 

“Yeah. Let's remake the world. Let’s start over. Let’s go back to the basics. People don’t appreciate this planet enough. We can save them, show them they’re wrong.” Andy answered, eyes bright, equally expressive. He’s jittery and pacing. The mold from Pete’s basement apartment could choke lesser people.

Together they will change the world. 

Their messages combined are everything. 

 

~fini


End file.
